Hempfest in Seattle

I went to one of these (okay, four) in Ann Arbor. It was pretty lame. First, you have to get up and to the diag by noon. Then it's crawling with cops. The cops were cool actually. They carted off the occasional dumbass who lit up a joint right there, but otherwise seemed to enjoy the spectacle as much as I did.

Which brings me to the real attraction of such an event: people watching. You've got your usual cadre of bozos, hippies, wanna-be-hippies and punks. There's always a few straight edgers who are double reversing the irony on you by dressing smart, thus super bucking the establishment (man). But my favorite are the straight up freaks.

There was this one guy at one of the hasbashes in Ann Arbor who was dressed up like a shaman. He had some kind of robe on, a skull of some animal on his head so that his face stuck out its mouth, and a rattle that he would use to put "hexes" on the cops as they walked by. He was hilarious. He made the day as far as I was concerned. And the best part, aside from the look on the cops' faces when he pointed at them and shook the rattle and muttered out some incantation, was when he would occasionally answer his cell phone.

As a former pothead, I have no problem with decriminalizing it. As anyone who has used both can attest, pot belongs in the same category as alcohol. Spend some time with a heroin addict, or recovering addict, and you'll understand the very extreme difference. I've not spent time with meth-heads, nor do I want to, but I hear they're just as bad. Those are the kinds of drugs to go after.

Here's the Hashbash website. I note they still hold it in early April on the diag at "high noon" (haha, get it? they're so cleverer than us, they've used the same slogan for years). Despite my sympathy for their cause, they still get some lunatics to represent them. One speaker at one of the Hashbashes said TWA flight 800 was shot down by the government so they could increase security to take away our pot. Um... okay dude. Put the lighter down and step away from the bong.

I may or may not attend the rally here in August. But if I do, once again the main attraction will be the people.